Fate flows through Heaven and Earth. It is formless and intangible, yet truly existent. Soundless and unseen, it merges into every inch of space, every living being, every passing breath. Within Heaven and Earth it is everywhere—nowhere absent. Compared with time and space, fate is even more ethereal and elusive.
Even back in the ancient era, among the countless beings born of Heaven and Earth, not a single one reached the utmost mastery of fate; all beings seemed to touch only its surface. Paradoxically, only after the second Great Calamity ended and a new era arrived—when cultivators appeared and began comprehending the Dao—did some grasp the Fate Dao. Most still merely brushed its fur. Only one person trod very far along it: he was called the Destiny Venerable, a quasi-Supreme. His combat strength was unknown, but in the Way of Fate none surpassed him since antiquity. He alone mastered many secrets of fate. One of his abilities was the Fate Interstice.
Fate is tightly bound to time and space. The Destiny Venerable could separate fate from space, forming a slit—an interstice—through which he could pass to any corner of Heaven and Earth, far faster than teleportation, exceeding even spacetime traversal. He could even use the Fate Interstice to temporarily return to the past. This power was mysterious and formidable, mastered by him alone.
When the Chaos Wild Ox suddenly displayed this ability, Lin Moyu was surprised. Did he think Lin Moyu wouldn't recognize it? By this ability alone one could almost deduce the Ox's identity. Yet the Destiny Venerable had long since fallen—so why would he be tied to the Chaos Wild Ox? The two should have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
"The fate of any Heaven and Earth is extremely mysterious," said the Primal Chaos Gem. "Few can comprehend fate; fewer still can use the Fate Interstice. To wield it silently like that shows he's very familiar with it—so we can infer he has gone far on the path of fate."
Lin Moyu followed the thought. "Fate can foretell the future, so he knew I would come here—and waited for me."
"That should be it," said the Primal Chaos Gem. "Otherwise it doesn't add up."
Lin Moyu smiled. "So he was confident I would accept this deal."
The Primal Chaos Gem shook his head. "Not necessarily. Fate only predicts; it isn't perfectly accurate. And fate cannot deduce the human heart—he can't know what Master thinks. Also, the Po-Cang Crystal is not of this Heaven and Earth. This world's Fate Dao cannot derive its origin or function. He himself can't make use of it."
"Even so," Lin Moyu said, "he could see the Po-Cang Crystal was extraordinary and deduce it might be useful to me. Therefore, he was confident enough to propose the deal."
"That should be it," the Primal Chaos Gem replied.
"I'm rather curious now," Lin Moyu murmured. "What exactly are the two corpses he wants me to fetch?"
"Go and you'll know," said the Primal Chaos Gem. "Is there anywhere in this Heaven and Earth Master cannot go?"
Lin Moyu chuckled. "True enough. Go and I'll know—what's the point of overthinking?"
He found the matter increasingly interesting. He summoned Xiaopeng again, changed course, and flew toward the East Extremity's center.
War had already spread into the East Extremity's interior. Beings from the Ancient Wilds were pouring in from all directions. The East Extremity's natives could not keep them all at the border; many had entered deep within. Casualties were innumerable, and the chaos far exceeded Lin Moyu's expectations. From the East Extremity's state, one could glimpse the other extremities' conditions—they were likely no better. Under the Calamity's sway, none could escape.
The East Extremity was vast. Even with Xiaopeng flying at full speed, it took several years to approach the center. Along the way, he witnessed untold battles and countless attempts on Lin Moyu's life. Those slain by Xiaopeng alone numbered in the tens of thousands; Perfect-level experts who died at Lin Moyu's own hands already exceeded a hundred.
Firelight entered view: at last they reached the East Extremity Sea of Fire. The West Extremity has the Pure Land; the East Extremity has the Sea of Fire—the East's place of origin, its source of power. The East's beings excel in fire-type arts and Daos, with tempers to match; the root of that lies here.
Just as he saw the Sea of Fire, space shattered ahead and masses of beings flew out. "East Extremity Dragon-Pythons—how coincidental." Lin Moyu smiled faintly; he hadn't expected to meet them here. When he first arrived at the East Extremity years ago, he started with the Dragon-Pythons, using them to find the broken cross-domain array. He had slain one of their clan's patriarchs then. The East Extremity Dragon-Pythons had eight patriarchs; with one killed there were seven left. Now those seven had appeared together with their clansmen. If they weren't deliberately lying in wait for him, then it was pure coincidence.
They emerged from the air, reeking of blood; some clansmen were wounded and bleeding—clearly fresh from a great battle. They too seemed to be heading to the Sea of Fire. Any native of the East Extremity, on nearing the Sea of Fire, can feel the East's source-power; here their injuries recover faster. But in the next breath, all their gazes fixed on Lin Moyu. Their steps toward the Sea of Fire halted abruptly. Lin Moyu, the brightest star in the night sky, gripped their attention, especially those seven patriarchs. In their eyes, he was a treasure for proving the Dao. The moment they saw him, a single thought filled their hearts: kill Lin Moyu and become a Supreme. Before the lure of ascension, their Dao-hearts—already affected by the Calamity—were swiftly clouded. Reason fled; eyes reddened; dragon roars boomed as they charged.
Space shattered as the Dragon-Pythons slipped through it, wielding spatial power to attack Lin Moyu.
"Kill them all," Lin Moyu sighed softly and issued the order to the hidden Wildshade Broodmother.
In an instant, dragon roars turned to screams. Before the Dragon-Pythons could return from between spaces to launch their strike on Lin Moyu, they were already butchered by the Broodmother in another layer of space. Its hundred feet became a thousand blades, piercing timespace and attacking the Dragon-Pythons at different temporal nodes. In the span of a heartbeat, thousands of Dragon-Pythons—along with their seven patriarchs—were decapitated together; their souls were annihilated. Space churned as the slain Dragon-Pythons tumbled back into real space, filling the void with fragments of corpses, blood spattering to the four winds.
Seated on Xiaopeng, Lin Moyu flew over the wreckage and headed for the Sea of Fire. This was the Dragon-Pythons' destined tribulation. Had they not met Lin Moyu, they might not have died—but in a Calamity they could not escape fate's arrangement. The karma between Lin Moyu and the East Extremity Dragon-Pythons was thus completely severed.
Xiaopeng reached the Sea of Fire's edge. Lin Moyu could feel its heat; this place seemed to welcome no outsider. Natives of the East could enter; so long as they didn't go too deep, they were fine—even able to cultivate and recover here. But the moment Lin Moyu entered, the Sea of Fire would attack.
"Go rest. I'll search alone from here." He put Xiaopeng away and stepped into the flames. The East Extremity's fire coiled around him like serpents. Lin Moyu let it burn as he strolled through the sea like a man in a garden. The natural aura of his powerful body formed an invisible membrane that warded off the flames. The East's fire could not harm him in the slightest.
His arrival was like pouring cold water into hot oil—immediately triggering a chain reaction. The flames boiled; the Sea of Fire seemed to gain a will, swearing to burn him to ash. Its force rose without end—yet no matter how strong it grew, it could do nothing to him.
The Sea of Fire did not give up; its power kept mounting, as if without limit. Lin Moyu heard countless angry roars—masses of beings were charging in. Not even the Sea of Fire could conceal his presence. "Rules of Heaven and Earth, misbehaving again," Lin Moyu said softly, with a trace of disdain. The Sea of Fire's extreme reaction was due in part to the rules' meddling. Outsiders had entered before; the Sea would respond, but not like this. Innumerable beings live within the Sea of Fire and rarely leave it. Now they took Lin Moyu as an enemy and hurled themselves at him—but before they could approach, they were cut down by the Wildshade Broodmother, turning into corpses drifting in the flames.
With the Causality-Seeking Ring unusable, Lin Moyu simply picked a direction and moved, occasionally taking out the stone pagoda to check for a response. The Sea of Fire was vast; his method was like searching for a needle in a haystack. But with sufficient speed, he would turn over this whole "sea" soon enough and find his needle. A clumsy method—but effective. Lin Moyu was patient. Where he passed, corpses lay in heaps; the hidden Broodmother slew all comers. Walking on a road of bodies, Lin Moyu searched for the passage hidden within the Sea of Fire.
The Sea churned ever more violently; the fire's power kept rising. At this point even a Perfect-level expert would be burned to ash—but to Lin Moyu it still meant nothing, not even the sensation of heat.
On the fifth day within the Sea, a vast aura rushed from afar—a quasi-Supreme at last.
"Someone with some weight," he said, yet he couldn't even be bothered to look. "Quasi-Supreme or not—first pass the Broodmother." At present, quasi-Supremes were not deeply affected by the Calamity; they still had their own thoughts. But in the East, such a figure's temper was never small; reason would be frayed.
"Stop—ah!" a distant roar came, filled with fury. Along his way, this newcomer had seen countless corpses—all natives of the Sea of Fire—which enraged him. An outsider had entered and was casually slaughtering the Sea's denizens—an utter humiliation. But his shout turned to a cry of alarm in the next breath: the Wildshade Broodmother had struck. The ferocity of the attack sent the quasi-Supreme fleeing in panic—run or die. He barely had time to shout "stop" before running, faster than he'd come. The Broodmother did not pursue; it continued executing Lin Moyu's order: hold the perimeter and kill every incoming enemy. None were allowed a single step closer.
Lin Moyu was a mark of death, a blazing star—wherever he went, he was the absolute focal point. But to admire a star's beauty here was to pay with one's life. The Wildshade Broodmother was the red line of life—cross it and die.
Days passed; Lin Moyu had lost count of the dead—he neither cared to tally nor wished to. He roughly estimated the area he had traversed: about one-tenth of the Sea of Fire. Even with the worst luck, a bit over a hundred more days would suffice to finish the search. As for luck—his was certainly at rock bottom. An enemy of Heaven and Earth has no such thing as luck.
The Sea boiled again. Lin Moyu looked up, sensing an anomaly—this boiling was unlike before. Countless angry roars and shrieks rang out. The corpses of the Sea's beings slain by the Broodmother instantly turned into red ash, converging toward a single place. The entire Sea of Fire became a spatial conduit; the red ash passed through it to the same destination. At the same time, masses of Sea-dwelling beings appeared there, shrouded by the crimson dust. The ash from their fellows' corpses fell upon them and piled up in thick layers. Borrowing the ash, those beings fused together into a crimson giant beast with fire flowing all over its body. It radiated an aura not inferior to a Supreme—seemingly stronger than that quasi-Supreme from before.
"They say the Sea of Fire holds billions of beings; scattered, they are nothing, but gathered they form a Fire Beast with the might of a Supreme. Seems it's true," Lin Moyu said softly as he regarded the crimson behemoth.
"Most likely the Sea of Fire was formed from the Wildfire Beast's remains," said Chaoszi. "This beast's shape resembles the former Wildfire Beast somewhat, though its power is far inferior."
Lin Moyu remembered: in Little Tree and Chaoszi's rankings, the Wildfire Beast was ninth. To rank in the top ten of the ancient era was to be a mighty existence—no weaker than a Supreme, and perhaps stronger. The current beast, fused from innumerable Sea-dwellers, only vaguely resembled it and lagged by a tier in power.
The Wildshade Broodmother moved. A thousand feet became blades, piercing timespace to launch simultaneous attacks from different directions. The Fire Beast roared, flames surging to the sky—but it could do nothing against the Broodmother. Its strikes, however fierce, were confined to real space, while the Broodmother's came from another layer of timespace, entering real space only at the instant of impact.
Boom—the blades speared the Fire Beast's body; immense force detonated. Most of its body was torn to shreds by the Broodmother; the remaining half collapsed a heartbeat later. Timespace power rolled through the void, casting the beast's parts into different layers so they could not connect—naturally collapsing. Being a fusion of countless beings, it was unstable to begin with: it had the aura of a Supreme, yet proved so fragile.
Lin Moyu chuckled with three parts disdain. If it were a true Supreme, the Broodmother's attack would not have worked so well. But alas, this was only an empty shell—capable of handling Perfect-level foes, yet mere fodder before stronger opponents.
As the Fire Beast shattered, innumerable Sea-dwellers died on the spot. Resentment billowed sky-high from the Sea. Dazzling light flared in the distance as a sun rose from the flames—then another, and another. In an instant nine suns hung above the Sea.
"Nine-Suns Venerable," Lin Moyu said with some disdain. A defeated foe from the Ancient Wilds—what tricks could he pull now? Even if this was his home ground, where his strength would be greatly enhanced, he still stood no chance before the Wildshade Broodmother.
Bathed in the radiance of nine suns, the Nine-Suns Venerable appeared among them. His gaze was icy as it fell on Lin Moyu. "You."
"I'm here to handle some business," Lin Moyu said with a smile. "Once it's done, I'll leave. Don't block me—otherwise, I'll kill you."